On 20 Aug 2004 00:33:58 -0700, (SpamHog) wrote:

More silly musings:

Hi OM,

I'll tell ya what.... Instead of musing, or re-inventing the wheel,
you already have examples from others who went before you with this
identical risk and obviously you think they solved it (or at least
they dress like those who could).

Climb to the top of the building (you HAVE done this, haven't you?)
and LOOK at those antennas and feed lines already there. Do they have
this protection you fantasize about? Do they treat anything as
ground? Do their lines tie to it?

Is there any evidence of lightning strikes? After all, according to
reports here, the flicker of 100000A will melt unobtainium - is that
tower sagging from recent bolts blasted against it? Are there any
explosion marks and charring along those lines? Do you notice any
heat stress fractures where the tower is mounted?

Look over the side, or visit the sidewalk below. Are their any
puddles of slag or molten metal? Or is there any evidence of a fine
metal particulate mist deposited along side the building (it will look
glittery like Disco Makeup for a drag queen)?

No? Do you think they ignored the problem? (What are the chances
anyway?) Do you think you will attract a problem they have never
experienced? Ask yourself, what makes your antenna so much more
attractive when the Eiffel Tower looms over it.

Well, of course there are the products of that near-nuclear EMP. Look
around and see how well the occupants of the building survived this
terrible act. Is there a high tenant turnover every season of
lightning activity? Have you noticed a lot of hearses in the parking
lot on occasion (which begs the question, why weren't you fitted into
a box too)? When you took your trash out, were there piles of
smoldering phones, computers, TVs, clock radios and Internet toasters
filling the bins after a rain? The haphazard, zig-zag AC wiring you
describe should guarantee these results to some degree - at least
enough to reveal any one of these characteristics of catastrophic
results.

Finally, and to answer the question why your antenna, and not the
goliath above it; building those pentangle chokes may if fact incur a
vengeful bolt delivered directly to you. Who knows, in this modern
age that religious metaphor may be embellished to a nuclear cruise
missile to fulfill the prophecy of EMP. (Ah! Images of Monty
Python's Holy Hand Grenade come to mind.)

Let us know how it turns out. ;-)

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Climb to the top of the building (you HAVE done this, haven't you?)

The top of my condo became very popular after I taught local kids how
to pick the locks many years ago, a long time befor I got my own keys.
Problem was, they would not limit themselves to our own condo roof.
Now the place looks like a WW1 front line, as other condos erected
barbed wire everywhere to keep them out. Luckily they can't be seen
from the street level...


and LOOK at those antennas and feed lines already there. Do they have
this protection you fantasize about? Do they treat anything as
ground? Do their lines tie to it?

The other ham has a mess of some 20 or so lines, including meteosat x
2, sat-tv x 3, HF wire, HF beam, HF vertical, 2m GP, 2m collinear, 2m
yagi, 70cm 2 elements x 16 array, 23 cm dish, VHF discone, weather
station, 70 cm moonbounce, plus controls for rotor and azimut mount
for the dish. All bonded in several places, and to the lattice tower
as well. Plus the guy has a ground from shack on down.

My obvious wish is that any rogue moving charge will prefer his
invitation to mine.


molten [...] unobtainium

AFAIK, properly grounded gear rarely melts, although you tend to get
some burn marks where the plasma kissed the metal.

I have climbed as far as about 5 feet above the rotor, i.e. some 30+
feet from the roof and about 140 ft above street level. Any higher
would be unwise without a harness (I do not intend to emulate Col.
Armstrong, esp. with no chick looking on, although I did drag a few up
to the roof). No burn marks up to that height. The unobtainum ingots
that lie neatly stacked on the roof look pristine.


is there any evidence of a fine
metal particulate mist deposited along side the building (it will look
glittery like Disco Makeup for a drag queen)?

We do get a lot of that, but it must come from other local sources.
Probably drag queens.


Ask yourself, what makes your antenna so much more
attractive when the Eiffel Tower looms over it.

Intrinsic beauty?


hearses in the parking lot

Right, thinking of my numerous pacemaker-equipped neighbors you must
be right. They do not fall like flies in an electrical storm.

People killed by lighting in this area tend to be caught by exploding
trees in parks. In the last serious case (2 dead, I think + several
hurt, about a years ago) one lady's arm was was temporarily paralyzed
by the EMP she caught from an umbrella she was holding about 50 ft
from the tree that got hit. Those closer to the hit were hurt
mechanically, not electrically.

It was really bad luck. It had just started raining, and it was the
very first bolt, while they were all leaving the park for a nearby
cafe' - they were not braving the storm right under the trees.


building those pentangle chokes may if fact incur a
vengeful bolt delivered directly to you.

Plus, any "pentagon" could also get the local jihadis all worked up.

Hmmm, should I get some local priest / imam to come over and bless the
hell out of it? A friend of mine did that to all his motorbikes, and
they did work more reliably than mine. Now that I think of it, some
local catholic priest indeed comes over for a round of
apartment-by-apartment blessing once a year, and I always opted out.
There must some neighborhood aura of blessedness that got layered on
year after year.


Who knows, in this modern
age that religious metaphor may be embellished to a nuclear cruise
missile to fulfill the prophecy of EMP. (Ah! Images of Monty
Python's Holy Hand Grenade come to mind.)

Pass the Lord and praise the Ammunition!


Let us know how it turns out. ;-)

It may take a while, esp. as I have to reuse (steal) someone else's
abandoned & forgotten flue line to bring the coax to my place.

A former underground garage & repair shop was turned into an unheated
undergroud parking facility. They just ripped out the furnace (which
for many years had provided me with an excellent local ground, btw!,
although they never noticed).

Now I have to drill a hole in a little known structure to access the
chimney up on top. A straight 110ft drop! I hope I won't hit
asbestos, which is a definite possibility.

When the wire is up, I'll post some pix, I promise!

73 & thanks

N1JPR/I2